Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

morbiusandneo

Sr. Member
Jun 16, 2007
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Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

Anyone ever hear the term "silver plate" related to identifying a potential treasure cache? Let me explain. About 7-8 years ago I was into this stuff pretty seriously.Did my research as best I could to convince myself that a target(or several targets) even still existed in the ground. Well, to make this brief, I had located on such area, and sent my USGS map of to my trusted map-dowser who lived in Idaho(I'm Chicago native). 2 weeks and $25 later I receive the map in the mail with several spots marked at a particular intersection out in the boonies(80 miles west of chicago).He has notes that identify that there are 3 spots in relative close proxinity of one another. he says different crooks buried each at different times, but that all are related to robberies performed at a now non-existant wooden bridge back in the late 1860's or thereabouts. Hmm....very enticing & interesting!!So, I get to the intersection, and do as he taught me by phone & video recordings(and my personal practice) to use dowsing rods.Well, they keep bringing me to a same spot that is not as far south from that intersection, but on the opposite side of the road where he marked the 3 locations.I spent several hours at this coming in from many directions and always the same result. Perplexed, when I get back home I tell him all about it, and he tells me take a picture of the spot the rods keep leading me to with an SX-70 Polaroid camera at night! He says that silver will show a blue "ray" on the film, and gold will show red "ray".Well, whatdya know, I get a deep blue image of what looks like a blue light saber(like in Star wars flicks) "ray" going straight up and down with nothing else in the picture(it is all completely black, except for this bue "ray").I mail it off to him, and he sends it back writing that I found a big silver cache of "silver plate".He writes that it is about 30-60 feet in front of where I took the pic from. This correlates to my field dowsing which I estimated I was taking the shot from about 25 feet from where my rods kept leading me. I did end up digging a hole about 3 feet down, and got really excitede when I could feel something down there with my shovel, then hands. Turned out to be an almost perfectly square piece of rather heavy sandstone(I thought sandstaone was rather light as far as rocks go, but it weighs like the same as a piece of granite that size would weigh in my estimation) about 3 inches square and 3/4 inch thick. I thought it was the corner of a chest when first feeling it down there in the bottom of the hole. After removing that rock, I stuck my probe in again and probed in a flare-out direction several directions and hit nothing down there. Sheesh.... all that digging and nothing!!Tooks many more pics but could never repeat the same image on film again, yet rods always brought me there again & again....Left, and ended treasure-hunting "carreer" up until about a month ago! It was the very last of many, many empty holes!!That digging is mighty hard work foolks! Even in this midwest loamy or sandy (or semi-clay) region which gets a considerable amount of moisture! That is compared to the southwest region! dry ground just gotta be way harder to dig, i can imagine. So, I have oodles of respect for all you hunters out there in the Southwest digging your signals!! So, i guess I got 2 questions(I sincerely hope I posted this in the right area, I'm a newbie novice). First, has anyone heard of "silver plate" identifying a silver treasure? What is it? As I recall, he(my now deceased dowser buddy!Boy was he a character! Someone with salt & to ride the river with, i tell you! I miss him....) also stated that it might be a silver ore vein, very rich, but that veins don't show that way on the film from his experience.Hence his conclusion it must be "silver plate". Second question relates to this rock I brought up which I mistakenly thought was the corner of a chest or container of some sort. I have read here at the various forums on 2 threads now that sometimes some concealed caches/treasures get covered with rocks right after they are inserted into the hole, and recovered with the local dirt. Maybe my heavy "sandstone" rock was such a rock????Like I said, it had no marks on it excluding from my initial probe and consequent shovel marks when I hit it digging..... All of your input on this would be greatly appreciated, as i'm thinking on revisitting this one! Also, I can't be sure, but somehwre in my memory I "think" he said "Spanish" when using that term, but I ain't positive! i AM positive he said SILVER PLATE, though....And, I do recall he was very excited about this one solely because of the picture I sent to him. It was just a fallow field with the closest houses being about 300 & 600 feet away.steven.
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

"silver plate" comes from the Spanish Plata, which is Spanish for silver. In early days, most mention of silver objects used the term "plate", and your friend was right in that it was a Spanish term.
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

People did put rocks over a cache to keep water off of it. If I were you I would go back and dig it again with a good, deep seeking detector in all metal mode.
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

One other thing, you might want to run your detector over the rock itself. You never know.
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

jbot said:
One other thing, you might want to run your detector over the rock itself. You never know.
I have a White's Eagle Spectrum with a bigfoot coil, and I never got any signal with it, though never used all-metal mode. I'm waiting for a Fisher detector to arrive & will try scanning that rock with it. Thanks! stvn.
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

SILVER PLATE, = A silver plating over a base metal, usually copper to some degree.
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

morbiusandneo said:
Well, to make this brief, I had located on such area, and sent my USGS map of to my trusted map-dowser who lived in Idaho(I'm Chicago native). 2 weeks and $25 later I receive the map in the mail with several spots marked at a particular intersection out in the boonies(80 miles west of chicago).He has notes that identify that there are 3 spots in relative close proxinity of one another. he says different crooks buried each at different times, but that all are related to robberies performed at a now non-existant wooden bridge back in the late 1860's or thereabouts. Hmm....very enticing & interesting!!So, I get to the intersection, and do as he taught me by phone & video recordings(and my personal practice) to use dowsing rods...
You say "trusted map dowser." Have you ever found treasure from paying this trusted map dowser? Have you ever found anything dowsing yourself? Just curious.
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

"YES" to both of your questions. steven.
[You say "trusted map dowser." Have you ever found treasure from paying this trusted map dowser? Have you ever found anything dowsing yourself? Just curious.
[/quote]
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

"silver plate" is silver molded in the shape of a plate. The term was first used to describe the Spanish silver fleets that carried treasure back to Spain. ((Plate fleets)) It was common practice to take a pweter plate and twist it back and forth in the sand to make a mold. The molten silver was poured in to the mold and when it hardened, the bottom of the ingot looked like the bottom of a plate. I am not saying that is what your friend was referring to but it would make more since.

Les
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

diggerfororo said:
"silver plate" is silver molded in the shape of a plate. The term was first used to describe the Spanish silver fleets that carried treasure back to Spain. ((Plate fleets)) It was common practice to take a pweter plate and twist it back and forth in the sand to make a mold. The molten silver was poured in to the mold and when it hardened, the bottom of the ingot looked like the bottom of a plate. I am not saying that is what your friend was referring to but it would make more since.

Les
So, we are talking about maybe 90%+ silver that was perhaps mined nearby, transported and buried at this location for some unknown reason. Buried by silver plate makers, who are generally accepoted to be exclusively/primarily Spanish. Desoto was purported to come as far north as central Missouri, from what I recall. There are rumors of many lost mines Indiana, but those are all related as being Indian lost mines. But, I wouldn't put it past a Lieutenant of his wanting to make his bones with Desoto, for a promotion perhaps and a cut of the take, to have taken over some of these silver mines for a short period and then leave with the smelted ore of SILVER PLATES. This is a valley that is an approaching point for a main river crossing. I can actually see about 3/4 of the whole vally from this cache site, and directly see the actually crossing that was likley used. Fords are generally wide and shallow and I could se 3-4 such points right from the spot in clear view, though a bit far off.
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

90% puriety would be a good guess. They had to take whatever the ore gave them as they had no means to refine the product any better. Most of the Spanish silver that was not made into coins was either made into plate or some type of bars. Most of the bars had no uniform weight. Some of the bigger bars might weight 40 pounds and the small bars(finger bars) might be only a couple of oz. Some of the finger bars were cut into chunks and used to make coins. I have done alot of research on this subject and I had to quit as I kept drooling on my shirts.
The term "finger bar" comes from using your finger, pressed into sand to make the mold.

Les
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

Steven, don't make me beg!!! Dowsing has always fascinated me. Please tell me about some of your successes using this procedure.


morbiusandneo said:
"YES" to both of your questions. steven.
[You say "trusted map dowser." Have you ever found treasure from paying this trusted map dowser? Have you ever found anything dowsing yourself? Just curious.
[/quote]
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

spanish silver "plate" a very common treasure term -- the term "plate" fleet meant "silver" fleet ---the spanish word for silver is plata ---the term was twisted to "plate" in english (ingots often were made in round plate shaped ingots also bars of varying sizes as well as "cob" coins---in old archives we often see words like "the spanish "plate" fleet of 1715 "---gold while important was a rather small amount of the treasure -- its high value meant that very few people could afford to own it --just like today ---silver was the everyday "life blood" of spain since the public demand that their money have "value" (unlike today where the money is not "backed" by anything --since the usa went off the "silver" standard in 1964 and the gold standard in 1933 --that is why our money is so "worthless" nowdays by the way) and massive amounts were mined and shipped to spain--the amount of gold is very small when it is compared to the vast amounts of silver shipped --- I hope this info helps you somewhat --- however in this case I think he means "plate" as in silver cookware ,candle sticks and such that household robbers would take maybe or a robbery of a silver shipment of some kind---many folks do not believe in dowsing at all and will tell you it is a sham and that the guy or gal is screwing you -- so be aware of thaT possibility but what to do is of course is up to you ( I MYSELF KNOW OF SEVERAL "GIFTED" FOLKS WELL ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT CAN BE DONE BY THEM--- HOWEVER THERE ARE ONLY A FEW GIFTED FOLKS OUT THERE HONESTLY AND WAY TOO MANY SCAM ARTIST OUT THERE SADLY)--- so dig and see for yourself --if the silvers there or not - good luck -- Ivan
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

ivan salis said:
spanish silver "plate" a very common treasure term -- the term "plate" fleet meant "silver" fleet ---the spanish word for silver is plata ---the term was twisted to "plate" in english (ingots often were made in round plate shaped ingots also bars of varying sizes as well as "cob" coins---in old archives we often see words like "the spanish "plate" fleet of 1715 "---gold while important was a rather small amount of the treasure -- its high value meant that very few people could afford to own it --just like today ---silver was the everyday "life blood" of spain since the public demand that their money have "value" (unlike today where the money is not "backed" by anything --since the usa went off the "silver" standard in 1964 and the gold standard in 1933 --that is why our money is so "worthless" nowdays by the way) and massive amounts were mined and shipped to spain--the amount of gold is very small when it is compared to the vast amounts of silver shipped --- I hope this info helps you somewhat --- however in this case I think he means "plate" as in silver cookware ,candle sticks and such that household robbers would take maybe or a robbery of a silver shipment of some kind---many folks do not believe in dowsing at all and will tell you it is a sham and that the guy or gal is screwing you -- so be aware of thaT possibility but what to do is of course is up to you ( I MYSELF KNOW OF SEVERAL "GIFTED" FOLKS WELL ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT CAN BE DONE BY THEM--- HOWEVER THERE ARE ONLY A FEW GIFTED FOLKS OUT THERE HONESTLY AND WAY TOO MANY SCAM ARTIST OUT THERE SADLY)--- so dig and see for yourself --if the silvers there or not - good luck -- Ivan
Ivan: I first want to thank you for your replies in this thread and others I've read. You have been a big part of inspiring me with my cache-hunting. I am satisfied from everyone's replies that I have a location of smelted silver alloy in bar-form, or whatever form. Right now, i am the best dowser that I know. But, I admit I have been in "training" for a very long time now, and am reluctant to trust my actions (going into the field to TH)to ONLY my own dowsing. ALL the professional dowsers(that PRODUCED results for their clients) are sadly all dead...... [email protected] Btw, I'd LOVE to learn exactly how you do solid research. How does one, for example, find a creek, say "Portage Creek" that once DID exist, but does not today?
 

Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

There is a book called hicking Minisota..1999 Page 9...Just a guess
 

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Re: Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.

This is just a supposition from an old Spanish hunter.

But one thing you may want to consider is a capstone as you are now supposing of sandstone would be very much heavier if it were buried because it would "hold" water if not on the surface. Your cache may be right under the spot where that stone was.

Ivan is right The English term "plate" often refers to the shape of the ingot that was made by the Spanish for shipping, They were a pretty consistant size and were contained in stacks of 15 in tubes made from canvas or leather. this made it easy to pay the "quint" by taking the first five pieces off the top.

I would go back and look again. If you doubt your abilities as a dowser, take a good two box detector in with you as a backup. the standard depth of a cache was a "braza" which works out to be about 5' 7".
This depth was determined by royal decree, it was supposed to be the height of an average man. (That is how tall King Philip was)

Hope it helps.

Thom
Old Dog
 

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